Saina Nehwal and the RPO

Saina Nehwal who was an olympic quarterfinalist and the current World No.10,the first Indian lady to accomplish such heights in badminton was in for a shocker from the passport authorities.

Her passport was not renewed in time which could have prevented her from participating in the Badminton Masters in Malaysia where one gets to rub shoulders with the best in the business.It was only after the media took her case up that she got her passport,just in time for her to apply for a Visa to Malaysia.Even Saina expressed her disappointment with the RPO in no unclear terms.

This shows the way the sportsmen are treated in our country and we expect medals from them every Olympics.This has robbed her of crucial practice.I wonder how many times would this have happened to a cricketer?The fact is that every Olympics raises hopes for other sports to flourish in India but the fact remains that we remain a one sport nation and would continue to remain so if our attitude towards our sportsmen does'nt undergo a drastic change.

Anyways, I wish Saina all the best for the tournament and hope that she cherishes being a part of that tournament and take valuable experience out of it.

Mangal Singh Champia

This talented Archer from Jharkhand is supported by The Mittal Champions Trust,which bears testimony to the enormous talent this guy possesses.He led India to gold at the 2007 Asian Championships.He won a bronze in the Individual events which was his ticket to Beijing.

A lot was expected from him heading into the Olympics of 2008,and he showed his mettle in the Ranking rounds where he finished an incredible 2nd,raising hopes of a medal.But he lost in the pre quarters to a Russian who eventually went on to win the bronze,thereby quashing his hopes.I know that the medallists have done us proud but we should not forget performances like these which promised a lot.I read in the paper one day that the fanatic media,sided him to get a pose of the new poster boy of India,Vijender Kumar.The mediapersons should be more responsible and show some respect to the our sportsmen.The irresponsible media is bringing shame to this country and it pisses me off when I hear of such incidents.

Ask this guy about what went wrong at the Olympics,and he says that he does'nt want to look behind,though he does say that the lack of different kind of ranges in the country does not help his cause.He has his eyes set on the future and has already started preparing for the 2012 games.He is becoming tech savvy these days and says that he is getting information about various ranges from the internet and preparing accordingly.

Though there is still time for him to get the Bindra like fame,I feel that we need to support our sportsmen in their bad times.A small word of motivation can sometimes do their confidence a world of good.Here's wishing him all the best for his preparations.

It is the journey that matters and we should enjoy it.The results would come automatically.
 

Unprecedented Performance but should we be happy with it??

The Beijing Olympics saw an unprecedented performance by India;winning three Olympic medals was truly a great effort.The winners need a pat on the back for all the hardships they faced and the sacrifices they made.While the media was going overboard with the feat and celebrating it,which no doubt they should,but a thought crossed my mind.Somehow I could'nt come to terms with the magnanimity of the situation.At the end of the day we were ranked a lowly 50th on the table,with three medals and small countries like Jamaica and Kenya managing top 15 spots.

We pride as ourselves being one of the fastest growing economies in the world and draw parallels with China.But China has surely moved far ahead of us and infact everybody at these games bagging 15 more gold medals than the second placed US.
We need to look into our sports much more seriously because sports has a truly global appeal and performing at the highest level takes everybody sit up and take notice.The politicians need to give up their decades old jobs as heads of the sports' governing bodies.We need CEO's as Abhinav Bindra puts it.We need to manage our resources judiciously.We need some MBA's from the millions that we produce to come and work in this field.There needs to be a vision and a dedication to accomplish it.

I think that these Olympics can prove to be a watershed event in context to the Indian sports.We need to build from this.This should prove to be a stepping stone for better things to come.
Come on India.....we are in for bigger and better things.